A follow up to the below post. If you still can’t decide what sparkling wine to open tonight, here’s two tasting notes on the bubby from Daniel Rogov’s column in Ha’aretz:
Pelter, Blanc de Blanc Brut, n.v.: Although categorized as non-vintage, this wine was made with Chardonnay grapes entirely from the 2003 vintage. Gentle yeast and hints of nicely toasted white bread with sharp bubbles that go on and on. Fresh, aromatic, well-focused and intense, with grapefruit and lime fruits backed up by hints of cloves, ginger and roasted nuts. Drink now-2010. NIS 175. Score 90.
Golan Heights Winery, Blanc de Blancs, Yarden, 2001: Delicious and luxurious – perhaps the best Blanc de Blancs to date from the winery. Made entirely from Chardonnay grapes by the traditional methode Champenoise, this medium-bodied sparkling wine shows just the right balance between yeasty sourdough bread, peaches, citrus and minerals. With a generous mousse and sharp, well-focused bubbles that go on and on, this crisp and sophisticated wine goes on to a long and mouth-filling finish. Drink now-2011. NIS 120. Score 92. K
It’s a few days until New Years – or Sylvester as we call it in Israel – and with that comes bubbly. Yup, sparkling wine (or champagne, but champagne really only refers to sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France).
Well, Israel isn’t known for being a world-class leader in this category but there are several worthwhile (and a few lacking, I admit) Israeli sparkling wines worth opening this December 31.
The always-excellent Golan Heights Winery makes two different styles of sparkling wines. The Brut N.V. and the Blanc de Blancs. Rogov gives them between 89-92 (with the 2001 Blanc de Blanc receiving a 92).
A Blanc de Blanc is a wine made exclusively from white, usually chardonnay, grapes according to the Israeli Answers.com site. A Brut is an extremely dry sparkling wine, again from the same site. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted the Yarden Blanc de Blancs 2000 as one of the great international wines!
Both are truly excellent wines and great sparkling wines to open this New Year’s Eve (K).
The Pelter winery, a smaller and family-owned winery which produces an excellent array of wines – producing about 30,000 bottles of a variety of different varietals and making some of Israel’s best – also has a Blanc de Blanc. While I haven’t had this wine, Rogov rated it highly and gave the Blanc de Blanc Brut N.V. (apparently from 2003 harvest) a 90. Winemaker Tal Pelter studied at the Israeli Weizmann Institute and in Australia. It’s a young, fresh place.
Continue reading Israeli sparkling wines for the New Year 2008 (Sparkling wines for Sylvester)
Below are the scores for the Wine Advocate article on Israeli wines by Mark Squires. Robert Parker also sat in on the tastings, and tasted himself.
IsraelWines.co.il also has the scores, in descending order.
You can see the notes of the WA’s scoring system here
However, note that tasting notes are very important. I saw excerpts of the Recanati tasting notes and they lost a few points because they had a certain herbal style that is not to Parker’s liking — yet this is the style most appreciated by the wine maker, Lewis Pasco, and many others also like styles and flavors and tastes that aren’t adored by Parker.
An interesting note in the kosher vs. non-kosher debate — many of the highest scoring wines actually were from kosher wineries, and this was mentioned in the comments on the article. Some of the non-kosher ones didn’t fare as well. Why might this be?
Golan Heights Winery, Heightswine, Yarden, 2005, Score 93 Golan Heights Winery, Katzrin, 2003, Score 91 Golan Heights Winery, Chardonnay, Odem Organic, 2005, Score 86 Golan Heights Winery, Viognier, Yarden, 2005 Score 86 Golan Heights Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon, Yarden, 2003 Score 86 Golan Heights Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon, El Rom, Yarden, 2003 Score 88
Golan Heights Winery, Blanc de Blancs, Yarden 2000 Score 86
Yatir, Ya’ar Yatir, 2003 Score 93
Yatir, Cabernet-Merlot-Shiraz, 2003 Score 90Castel, Grand Vin 2004 Score 92 Castel, Chardonnay, 2005 Score 91
Castel, Petit Castel, 2005 Score 90
Tzora, Or, Dessert Wine, 2006 Score 92′
From the IsraelWines.co.il site:
The Wine Advocate’s first generic tasting of Israeli wines resulted in a resounding success, which will encourage the whole industry. The Wine Advocate is the mouthpiece of Robert Parker, the world’s most powerful and influential wine critic.
No less than 14 wines scored over 90 points. This has always been the mythical barrier between a good international class and a world class wine. Much to the frustration of Israeli wineries, the Wine Spectator magazine has only once scored an Israeli wine with more than 89 points. Furthermore, Robert Parker has not tasted and written about Israeli wines until now.
According to the Wine Advocate, a wine scoring between 90 – 95 points, is: “An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.” So the tasting represented a real breakthrough. It showed that Israeli wines have arrived on the world map as quality wines in their own right. Also the leading eight wines were all kosher. This has finally layed to rest, once and for all, the prevailing stereotype that a kosher wine, by definition, cannot be a world class wine.
The best red wine of the tasting was Yatir Forest 2003, Judean Hills, Yatir Winery with 93 points.
The best white wine was ‘C’ Blanc du Castel 2005, Judean Hills, Domaine du Castel with 91 points.
The best dessert wine was Yarden HeightsWine 2005, Galilee, Golan Heights Winery with 93 points.
Continue reading Historic Tasting for Israel
Well, I can’t just drink Israeli wine all the time. This past Thursday, I returned to Jerusalem’s Wine Hall – a relatively new but top wine store in downtown Jerusalem – for a tasting of the California Herzog line of wines. As you may recall, I first went to their Carmel Limited Edition and Single Vineyard tasting, but they had several other weekly tastings. For New Year’s Eve, they will be doing a tasting of sparkling wines. Attendees of the tasting also can receive a small discount on new purchases. I bought some nice French wine, Chateau La Clare Medoc and Herzog Selection Chateneuf, which came recommended by a friend, but they had much more wine from France, California, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere.
Wine Hall, on Shlomzion HaMalka Street, is one of a surge of new wine shops opening throughout Israel with both imported and Israeli wines, kosher and non-kosher, tastings, and staff who are knowledgeable about wine and can give recommendations to their customers – not something that can be found at the mini-markets or supermarkets, where most Israelis still buy their wine.
Next time you’re in Jerusalem, stop by! Tell them you heard about Wine Hall from HaKerem: The Israel Wine Blog!
Quick heads up that the Wine Advocate tastings on Israeli wines have just been released. The magazine was just mailed yesterday morning, so it should be arriving in subscriber’s mailboxes shortly and the article will be on the eRobert Parker site (only accessible to subscribers and subscriptions cost $99, so I don’t have one) around December 27.
The early news is that several wines received scores of 90 or more and about 50 received 87 or higher. Some wineries will be rejoicing, others – not so much.
But what does this mean for Israeli wines?
UPDATE: I just received the scores and will post them on Monday. If anyone has the notes or the tasting notes and would be willing to send me a private copy, that would be appreciated but, if that is the case, I can not post it online for copyright reasons
Israeli wine just got a bit of attention in Canada. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with private organizations, brings many different groups of people to Israel. I have personally been involved in a trip of bloggers, but they have also brought in entertainment/youth culture reporters, political leaders, and others.
The journalists included Tony Aspler, Jugen Gothe, Sheila Swerling-Spuritt, Sean Wood, Irvin Wolkoff, Alex Eberspaecher, Debbie Trenholm and Master Sommelier John Szabo. They visited wineries including Amphorae, Agur, Barkan-Segal, Bazelet ha Golan, Binyamina, Carmel – Zichron Ya’acov, Castel, Ch. Golan, Dalton, Ella, Flam, Galil Mountain, Golan Heights Winery, Karmei Yosef-Bravdo, Margalit, Pelter, Recanati, Saslove, Sea Horse, Tulip, Tzora, Vitkin and Yatir and ate at some of Israel’s finest restaurants. Of course, despite being brought by the government, they were able to be completely objective.
As a result, several new reviews of Israeli wines have been published in Canada,
including this review by Tony Aspler. Some highlights of that review (besides tasting notes, check out the article) include insights about the individual wineries. “”I hope people will appreciate Israeli wines as Israeli wines not kosher wines,” said Golan Flam, the winemaker of Flam – the largest non-kosher winery in Israel, making great wines.
Marc Andre Gagnon, an independent Quebec critic who was not on the trip, also came out with a review of three Israeli wineries. The original article is in French here (Tzora Vineyards 2004 Stone Hill Vineyard Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Winery 2004 Sandro, and Alexander Winery 2004 Gaston and Ella Valley Vineyards 2004 Chardonnay) and a translation of the tasting notes:
Continue reading Canadian wine journalists visit Israel
The following story originally appeared in “the honey,” an English e-newsletter about life and culture in Israel:
WINE
PURO VINO
If this purist bent suits the current fancy, take it a step further and go organic in your wines. The much acclaimed Sea Horse Winery on Moshav Bar Giora, just southwest of Jerusalem, has been growing organic syrah and zinfandel grapes in its vineyard since 2000. The vines are carefully nurtured during their growing season – exposed to the Mediterranean air and sun, yielding fruit that makes for unique tasting wines. The Antoine, a Syrah and the Lennon, a Zinfandel (one of the first to be produced in Israel), are only made with organic grapes, although winemaker Ze’ev Dunie does add sulfites to his wine, which allow him to properly develop and age the wine. Looking for another option? Yarden Chardonnay Odem Organic Vineyard is produced entirely from grapes grown in the Odem Vineyard, which has been farmed organically since 1998. It’s a wine for a celebration with a rich taste and finish on the palate. Just think, you can detox your wine.
Continue reading Organic Israeli wine
This weekend, I opened up a bottle of the 2006 Galil Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Unusually, Rogov says that it is best starting in 2009. Yet, like most people, I am not going to store this wine until 2009 – as the wine is still good and I lack adequate storage solutions.
For those who don’t have an extra $20,000 or more lying around and a basement to construct a home wine cellar, how do you store your wine? Do you only buy wine meant for early drinking? But then what do you do for those rare gems like the 2006 Galil Mountain?
Wine fridges are becoming common options, and Rogov devotes a chapter of the 2008 guide (new for the 2008 edition, I believe) to this option. In Israel, wine fridges – like most things – are still a bit expensive and cost more than the comparable product in the US, but in doing research I discovered numerous high end companies offering luxury and large fridges. But what about the regular drinker, who perhaps only opens up a bottle of wine a week or month and doesn’t have extensive storage needs? Or has a tight budget – like many of us in Israel – and doesn’t want to go into overdraft – or a larger one – over a wine fridge. Do most people own wine refrigerators? I never grew up with one and my family’s in the wine business.
I don’t have a good answer. What do you suggest? How do you store your wine?
I’m still a newbie to the wine blogging world and so I missed Wine Blogging Wednesday. Apparently, last week’s WBW#40 was for people to blog about Petit Sirah – a varietal in which there are a few good Israeli choices. This is extra unique as Israel doesn’t yet have a ton of varietals (most table wine is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, although there is also new Pinotage, Barbera, Viognier, Shiraz, and, of course, Petit Sirah, among a few other varietals, and many nice blends). Although, apparently, Petite Sirah is a major Israeli variety.
So, I was pleasantly surprised that Celebrate Wine (a regular reader! Thanks!) blogged an Israeli wine in this mix! Tasting notes:
2002 Barkan Petit Sirah ($9.99) – I thought it would be interesting to throw an Israeli Petit Sirah into the mix, and although this bottle was showing its age, it still drank quite nicely. The wine had aromas of dark cherry, oak, and a slight earthiness to it. Maybe a hint of tobacco? (Thought that might be stretching it). The wine had a decent structure with tannins that were definitely present, but not overbearing. It showed delicious blackberry and cherry fruit, with a smooth finish. People have this tendency to turn their noses up at Kosher wines, and it’s really unfortunate because there are a lot of great wines out there that just happen to be Kosher. This is one of them.
Check out other wines from Barkan (the top lines are very good, note: website seems to only work in Internet Explorer).
Here are some more fun videos on wine tasting. Remember, wine is for everyone.
and Gary has some great tips:
Here are two videos on how to taste wine. Not specifically Israeli-wine related but still useful for many.
